In traditional digital media editing systems, such as non-linear video editors, the source media assets that form the basis of a media project that is being edited are stored locally to the video editor. For example, the video editing application may run on a client system on a local area network with network attached storage that stores the source assets. For smaller systems, the media may be stored on a drive that is integral to the client system, or directly attached to it. While this arrangement may be convenient for post production environments, it is not the setup that is increasingly adopted for television broadcasting environments, especially for news program generation and broadcasting. Here it is typical for small teams, such as a cameraman and reporter, to be located in the field where they are capturing media. When time to air is of the essence, it is desirable for such field teams to be able to import their locally captured assets into a video editing system and to edit a news program in situ using both their local assets and existing assets that are stored on remote servers at the news station facilities or in the cloud.
A video editor may be situated remotely from the project source media assets in situations other than news creation. For example, an organization may have facilities at two different locations, with its video editors at one location, and its system infrastructure, including media storage servers, at another.
Since media files tend to be large, existing remote video editing systems typically have to adapt to delays in retrieving media files from remote locations that are caused by bandwidth limits and system latency. Such adaptation results in the imposition of various limits on the editing functionality available to users of remote video editing systems. For example, it may not be possible to include local assets in a project without first uploading them to the remote storage system. Other systems limit the editor to straight cuts. Color correction, clip transition edits, and effects may not be supported.
In an increasingly distributed media creation environment, there is a need to address the limitations currently imposed on remote video editors.